Practical papers —Education for farmers. 443 
defeat those who will not pledge themselves to such reforms, they 
will all declare, as with one voice, gentlemen, we are with you, 
and at your service. 
EDUCATION FOR THE FARMER. 
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Read before the State Agricultural Convention in February, 187'3. 
BY T. H. EATON, MONROE. 
It should be the laudable ambition of every one to elevate the 
standard of the calling in which he is engaged. There are certain 
callings, or professions if you please, that always have been con¬ 
sidered more honorable than others. I propose in this paper to 
notice a few of those occupations that have been considered in 
and of themselves honorable, and to ascertain, if I may be so 
fortunate, the foundation upon which the honor has been con¬ 
structed, and if I shall succeed in doing so, I will attempt to draw 
a practical lesson for those who are engaged in cultivating the soil. 
In the first place, we learn that the care of the sick, was in the 
early stages of man’s existence, entrusted to the most menial of 
God’s creatures ; that to be assigned to the healing art, was as much 
of a reproach as it was to compel an ancient Isrealite to feed swine. 
But by association and education, the healing art was soon made, 
(although attended with more toil, danger and hardship than any 
other calling that mankind had engaged in,) one of the most 
honorable occupations known to mankind. By the institu¬ 
tion of colleges and the conferring of honorary titles; by the 
marks of respect shown by the graduates of one institution, for 
those of another ; by the utter contempt of all for ignorant pre- • 
tenders, the M.D. is justly entitled to be called a member of one 
of the learned professions. The member of the legal profession 
too, I believe, has earned his title to honorable, by his perseverance 
in learning and literature. At the time that the law became a 
special calling for man, it was customary for a young man to enter 
